He stands 6-foot-3 and is fairly soft-spoken, so it’s easy to see where Thomas Pieters might have a gentle giant persona. But the 26-year-old native of Belgium gets upset like the rest of us. And when it happens, well let’s just say you don’t want to be a golf club when Pieters starts running hot.
Case in point: Friday at the BMW PGA Championship, when a bad swing with his second shot on the par-5 fourth hole led to this golfer-on-equipment violence.
We’ll forgive Rich Lerner the “snap” pun. We, too, were a little flabbergasted by what we saw and didn’t exactly know what to say.
It probably doesn’t help that Pieters shot an opening-round 75 and is in need of some birdies at Wentworth in order to make the cut in the European Tour’s flagship event. And with plenty of Ryder Cup points on the line this week, Pieters knows it’s a big one for any number of reasons.
The crazy thing? He went on to make a par on that hole. That said, the rest of his irons are on notice. Fall out of line, and you too could be seeing your last swing.
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